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Computer site Anandtech Shuts Down

amirm

amirm

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An icon of the coverage of computer systems has closed doors: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...puter-hardware-reviews-closes-after-27-years/

"For better or worse, we’ve reached the end of a long journey—one that started with a review of an AMD processor, and has ended with the review of an AMD processor," wrote Smith, referring to reviews of AMD's K6 and Ryzen 9000-series chips, respectively. "It’s fittingly poetic, but it is also a testament to the fact that we’ve spent the last 27 years doing what we love, covering the chips that are the lifeblood of the computing industry."

I remember a time when I needed something, I would go look up the hardware there and then go to Fry's and buy it. Fry's lost its way years ago and shut down a while back. Now Anandtech has done the same. I remember going there a year or two ago and was surprised that there was nothing but ads and useless stuff there. Didn't realize they were sold to the same company as Tom's Hardware which likewise has mostly useless stuff now.

Article talks about the ascend of youtube videos. I wonder if the audience is more visually oriented than text.

"Perhaps not coincidentally, much of the audience for in-depth PC component reviews has migrated to Google's YouTube, where big channels like Linus Tech Tips and Gamers Nexus traffic in meticulous component reviews that owe a clear debt to AnandTech's rigorous methodology and endless seas of bar charts."

Fortunately we are still doing well with text based content showing that unique and in depth analysis of data first and foremost still works. Putting ads first and content as filler is the wrong strategy.

Anyway, sad day to see one of the mainstays of computer coverage on the web is no more.
 
As someone who much prefers the written word, I'm dismayed that so much information is now imparted in videos rather than text. Many items don't come with a written manual, just a link to YouTube videos. A paper manual can be read over and again, referred to as required, with random access, unlike a video.

Reviews likewise are an inanely grinning 'influencer' rather than properly argued text.

Sad to see the written word being so ignored.

S
 
The site's content will continue to be available, as owned by their "publisher", Future PLC. I didn't realize how many other brands are also theirs - TechRadar, Tom's Hardware, What Hi-Fi? as well as stuff like Country Living and Homes and Gardens...
 
FYI I had lunch with them/interview at Las Vegas CES show. Can't find that on their website but did find a reference to me that I did not know! https://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index/2798?cPage=5&all=False&sort=0&page=13&slug=

"The voice recognition works surprisingly well, even with background noise. I was also surprised by how well it handled less common names. I tried calling Amir Majidimehr, former Microsoft VP and generally awesome home theater dude, and the voice recognition handled it perfectly."

:)
 
amirm said:
Putting ads first and content as filler is the wrong strategy.
Click to expand...
It is important to differentiate here. From what I have seen on LTT and Gamers Nexus so far, LTT is definitely focused on click rates and also clearly aligns the topics of the videos with the advertisers. The YouTube channel is closer to the mainstream and is more interested in covering as many topics and audiences as possible rather than actually going into depth. With Gamers Nexus, the entertainment factor is a little less present and you get the feeling that objectivity is more of a priority.
Of course, these are still entertainment formats to a certain extent. But the good thing about a long hardware test on video is that you can simply pick out the personally relevant passages based on the time stamps. In my opinion, especially with Gamers Nexus, they usually make pretty good pro/con assessments and in terms of price/performance.
At least the PC sector is already on the decline again after the short Corona high, which is no surprise given the enormous hardware costs compared to consoles (which are expensive for casual gaming anyway).
In the hi-fi sector, ASR occupies a niche that runs in a kind of opposite direction to the industry/magazines/youtubers. By showing that in many product groups an objectively measurable increase in quality is simply no longer available above a certain (often surprisingly low) price level, it is opposing the usual "tests" whose sole aim is to confuse customers and maximize profits.
If the range of videos on the ASR channel were to grow a little, it would certainly be useful for users with less technical background knowledge. I don't mean specific product tests but rather general videos - of which there are already some - that provide assistance in how to read the reviews und use them effectively when choosing a product.
 
sergeauckland said:
As someone who much prefers the written word, I'm dismayed that so much information is now imparted in videos rather than text. Many items don't come with a written manual, just a link to YouTube videos. A paper manual can be read over and again, referred to as required, with random access, unlike a video.
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Most people are not like us nerds. "Real men don't read instructions", remember? What this implies for the standards of general literacy and their development over time is another discussion...

I had no idea that Anand himself is a year younger than me. By 1997 I was excited to finally have an internet connection at home (using a trusty 33.6kbps modem at 14.4 tops, I think we had one of those multiplexed phone lines), and my modest homepage first started in 1998, writing about such things as my modest tape deck. One of my first "hits" was a page on tape technology that hasn't been touched since 1999 (there are a few things that should be corrected but I never dared to figuratively desecrate a corpse), and then there were the Sony 7600 shortwave receiver pages, and a Windows 3.1 tweaking page. Anyway, never in a million years would it have occurred to me to start a professional tech review website at that age. I had no clue about business whatsoever.

The late '90s / early 2000s were a wild time. I remember consulting Chris Hare's Processor Electrical Specs quite regularly, the #1 tech site may have been Tom's Hardware (alongside CNET, I guess?), and anyone remember Dan's Data? The masses of early-2000s stuff in the site index make me super nostalgic.

Anandtech always was the go-to for CPU architecture deep-dives. I don't see how content like that could be adequately represented in video. Clearly video is where the money is though.
 
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sergeauckland said:
A paper manual can be read over and again, referred to as required, with random access, unlike a video.
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Paper manuals don't get taken down, or the URL go dead either. If the manual is pdf I save it locally as I don't trust those to be available when I need it in 10 years time. I haven't bought anything with her manual only on YouTube, thank god, but it screams we don't expect your new product to have a long life.
 
I don't know why there's been such a fuss about AT. You need to adapt or die by going where the audience is (video), and AT didn't adapt, so they died.
 
Must have spent a thousand hours reading AT between the reporting and forum.
 
Sadly (or not) people are about visuals and stories.All people,even the ones who don't admit to it.
And it grows exponentially as time goes by.Why?Because takes less time,is practical,you get to virtually share the experience and as suspicious people have grown it's easier to scrutinize when it comes to a review that an experienced operator can "game" any time.

Anandtech is a victim to it exactly the same way as written food recipes and books have died now that people have the opportunity to see the process live.
There's no turning back on this,either we adapt or end-up like old stars who remember past glories.
 
As a electronic observer and mostly mechanical guy I think YT is not the culprit but harbinger of change. All things electronic and mechanical have been commoditized and made from modules were made in the east where labor is cheaper. The IC was replaced by computer hardware which in turn was replaced by software, then the internet struck blows to vertical integration in favor of globalization and communication. Now AI will replace many white collar jobs and create new ones like printing exact replicas of bones and tissues and aircraft control. The hardware world is dying a slow death as Frys is gone, will Digikey be next and try to find a hardware store other than ACE. Amazon owns logistics. VCs no longer invest in little fish in hardware and existing suppliers are consolidated or out of business. Its over for simple systems without some type of micro processor in and video screen on them connected to a larger network. My new refrigerator is run by a computer and I'll bet that same control system is used in a dozen other similar systems. It is the way of the modern world has been for a while, its just the cycles get shorter and shorter.
 
I have always thought of Anand as a little kid (he founded Anandtech when he was 15). I started reading Anandtech soon after it was founded. Before I knew it, he retired from Anandtech and I was kind of surprised when I saw his picture:

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I guess little computer whiz kids grow up too.

Sad to hear of its demise. Anandtech hasn't been the same for the past few years.
 
Well to replace text, vids need to be more carefully organized. Julian Krause does this pretty well. He follows the same format each time, and has titles over sections so you can skip to what you want to know without puzzling thru many minutes of video for specific info. There are other videos that do this, but it needs to become the norm. You also need some search functionality within a given video which I suppose AI will help with.

Marshall McLuhan who was very insightful about media said that the old media are perfected before the replacement media is adequate. Often only perfected as it is replaced. So it fits with his insight and understanding that video based media would replace text based usage of the internet before the video is adequate to do as good a job. It is very clear video is replacing text for most people for most uses. Those growing up with this will improve it. They won't be trying to make it work in the ways text did so it will be different. It will be hard for those of us already grown to know where it will go. It may be hard for us to ever use as effortlessly as those who will grow into it. OTOH, it may end up even better in ways we cannot foresee because those ways may not yet be possible.

Of course what really killed AT, and similar sites is being bought out and monetized toward appealing toward the masses and not the tech niche it was founded upon. Many of these sites I still look toward for tech info out of old habit and find they don't provide it anymore. Some attempt to look like they do, but are nothing more than monetized bought and paid for ad machines. The opposite of what a site like ASR is.
 
Nothing’s been the same since Wayne Greene shut down.
 
In one of their first podcast they made it clear that their customers were the advertisers... So no wonder they end up losing their products...
 
Even though I have great ad blockers ASR is a refreshing place on the web where information is exchanged without an advertisers agenda looming on the sidebar and an objective meeting place for makers, consumers and seekers. Thanks again @amirm!
 
Blumlein 88 said:
Marshall McLuhan who was very insightful about media said that the old media are perfected before the replacement media is adequate. Often only perfected as it is replaced. So it fits with his insight and understanding that video based media would replace text based usage of the internet before the video is adequate to do as good a job. It is very clear video is replacing text for most people for most uses. Those growing up with this will improve it. They won't be trying to make it work in the ways text did so it will be different. It will be hard for those of us already grown to know where it will go. It may be hard for us to ever use as effortlessly as those who will grow into it. OTOH, it may end up even better in ways we cannot foresee because those ways may not yet be possible.
Click to expand...
We've already entered times where young school kids, when introduced to books, start moaning "Am I really supposed to read all this myself?"
Societies without written words had a hard time in the past, and societies loosing the written word will likely decline as well... and the decline has already started.
 
Video tutorial's lacks a dimension , its to linear ? In a written tutorial i often scroll to the pic with the setting I'm searching for :) and I'm not always reading it in the order its presented.

it would be like if amir feed us a review one letter at the time , panther last but before that some inane rambling about the sponsor :D if i hear any more about "better help" i will actually need them :D

Does not the people making the ads scripts realize that the same blurb read by totally different persons in totally different fields make it loose all credibility :D especially if its supposed to be in a personal tone ? and every one says almost the same thing ?
 
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